Variable cycle length in chain printer operation



Dec. 15, 1964 F. SALTZ 3,161,125

' VARIABLE CYCLE LENGTH IN CHAIN PRINTER OPERATION OTiginal Filed Jan. 12, 1961 COLUMN|32 COLUMNI l0 CHARACTER I I .CHARACTER DATA TRACKS SHFT g MAIN STORAGE R 4 I44 CHARACTERS- E Y Y DRIVE I I 2I l9 0R I Q I?) HAMMER sEuzcTIoM Hi PRESET MATRIx I44 POSITIONS Hm COUNTER I SUBTRACT CHARACTER I UNDER HAMMER l4 l6 0R l/ R R COMPARE a FIEPMMMEI i HRE HAMMER2 & I HRE HAMMER3 I INVENTOR. FRED SALTZ BY W mzgmfia ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,161,126 VARXAEILE CYCLE LENGTH EN (IHAEN PRHNTIER GPERATEQN Fred Saltz, liingharnton, PLEA, assignor to International ilnsiness Machines Qorporation, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New York t'lontinnation of application Ser. No. 82,388, lan. 12, 1961. This application Sept. 11, 1963, et. No. 368,312 11 tllairns. (Cl. fill-93) This invention relates to a high speed printing apparatus and more particularly to one of the on-the-fly type.

This application is a continuation of my copending application Serial No. 82,398, filed lanuary 12, 1961, now abandoned.

In three copending applications identified as (1) Improved Chain Printer, Serial No. 704,938, filed by F. M. Demer, R. H. Harrington, and A. T. Shalkey, filed December 24, 1957, now Patent No. 2,990,767; (2) Chain Printer Timer, Serial No. 705,678, filed by E. R. Wooding, filed December 27, 1957, now Patent No. 2,918,865; and (3) High Speed Printer Apparatus, Serial No. 844,511, F. M. Demer and Edward I. Gerenchus, filed October 5, 1959, nowPatent No. 2,993,437, there is disclosed a printing apparatus wherein the printing is effected on-the-ly, that is, printing is efiected from imprint forming elements such as engraved type members which are in motion when the imprintis formed. Specifically, the type members may be mounted on an endless chain which travels transversely of the paper or other medium upon which the printing is to occur. In such a system, this paper may have 144 vertical columns defining a plurality or horizontal printing lines with 144 printing areas thereon. There are provided 144 printing hammers, one'for each printing area. .The characters to be printed may be stored originally on a magnetic tape in the form of coded digital data. The apparatus contemplates the use of a maximum of 132 characters in a print line. The entire print line of characters is read from the tape and stored in a three-dimensional core matrix. Means are provided for identifying at any particular time during the print cycle what characters are in printing position under each one of the hammers. The uniformly spaced type members on the chain are movable relative to the print line and they are spaced with relation to the hamers so as to be alignable only at separate print positions extending along the print line. Means are provided for moving these members relative to the print positions, preferably at a constant rate of speed, so that a plurality of sub-cycle alignments are et fected whereby successive adjacent print positions not having type members alignable therewith during one subcycle alignment will have print members alignable therewith in one or more subsequent alignments, depending upon the spacing ratio of the type members to print positions. In theinstant case there are 144 possible print areas I each of the hammers.

3,lfil,l2fi Patented Dec. 15, 1964 length is provided. The cycle length is directly proportional to a number of sub-cycles equal to the highest num-' ber columns in the print line having a character to be imprinted therein. If this happens to be two columns, then the next print line will start immediately {following the second sub-cycle associated with the preceding print line. Shifting then from the first print line to the second will occur after the No. 2 columns in the first print line has been printed.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a high speed printer apparatus of the, on-the-fiy type in which the number of cycles necessary to print an entire print line is variable.

It is a more specific object of the present invention to provide a shift signal for shifting from one print line to the next succeeding print line when the last print position or print area necessitating a character has been printed.

These and other objects will become apparent from a more detailed description of the accompanying drawmg.

The drawing accompanying this specification is a diagrammatic representation of one system constructed in accordance with this invention which provides a variable cycle length in a chain printer operation.

Referring to the drawing, the tape 10 is shown as containing a plurality of data tracks. In the present instance, we are assuming seven bit positions per character. The magnetic beads associated with the data tracks read the characters into the main storage unit 11. This main storage unit 11 may accommodate 144 such characters. It may be a three-dimensional core matrix having, for instance, seven planes. The column 1 character will be located in position 1 in the matrix and the column 2 character in position 2 and so forth. By column 1 is mean column 1 of the paper or other medium upon when all of the column character positions of the tape 18 have been scanned, the preset counter 13 contains a count equal to the number of characters loaded into the main storage unit 11. This, of course, is equivalent to the number of characters to be printed in the print line.

The main storage time.

In the copending applications referred to there is means provided for identifying each of the characters under Let us assume now that all of the unit 11 stores one print line at a characters have been loaded into the main storage unit 11 to a print line and the chain contains five groups of 48 different characters The-type members are spaced so that three type members'span four print positions. Stated another way, every'other type member is alignable at every third hammer position. Thus, the typespacing may be, said to; be 1.5 pitch. 1 4-4 sub-cycles would be, necessary. to complete a lineo'f print with 48 ditlerent typechar- I actersarranged in successive groups along the print line.

In; accordancel with the said copending applicationathe number of sub-cycles necessary to print a line isfixed,

and printing is about .to take place. The column 1 character is read out of the main storage unit 11 and fed to the compare unit 14. At the sametime the character which is under hammer 1 (H is also fed to the compare H unit 14. .At the same time that the x and y drives associ- This despite the fact that a print line may actually have printed thereon only one or two characters an'dthese in the very early or low numbered'Sub-cycle positionsi llonethe'lessyit is necessary'that before shifting tothe' neirt print line that 144 sub-cycles be completed. In'accordi' ance with the present inventiomhowever, a variable cycle j ated with the main storage unit 11 'read out the character for column 1 they also read out from hammer selection matrix an indication for hammer 1 (H This-indicationis'fed to AND gate 16 and conditions said gate. Now, for instance, itcolumn 1 character is an Aand the character under the hammer '1 is an A, then AND gate 16 is unblocked by thecompare'signal at the. output of the compare unit14. The output. of AND gate 16 provides *the'fire hammer 1 signal and also provides a signal to'OR. V

gate 18, the output of which is connected to the SUB- TRACT input of-the reversible preset counter 13.

. Theabove process continues with a read out of the column characters in storage and a comparison'inthe 1 compare: unit 14 with the character under eachqof the 1 hammers until such time as the count of the preset counter 13 has been reduced to 0. If we consider that the preset counter is a conventional binary counter, for instance, composed of a plurality of two-state devices, the 1 state outputs of each of the trigger stages is connected to OR gate 19. The output of OR gate 19 is fed to inverter 21. As long as there is at least a count of 1 in the preset counter, the output of OR gate 1% will be up and the output of inverter 21 will be down. However, when the preset counter has reached a 0 count, the output of inverter 21 will go up to provide the shift signal. Of course, prior to loading of the main storage unit 11 the count of the preset counter is 0 but means are provided to ignore the up level output from inverter 21 under this circumstance.

While the one embodiment of the present invention has been disclosed and described, other embodiments obvious from the teachings herein to those skilled in the art are contemplated to be within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for transferring blocks of information of variable character length from a storage medium to an output device, said apparatus comprising; means for sequentially reading a first block of information to be transferred character by character to said output device, a counter, means for adding one count to said counter each time a character of said first block of information is read, storage means, first means for transferring said characters of said first block of information from said reading means to said storage means, second means for transferring said characters of said first block of information from said storage means to said output device character by character, means for subtracting one count from said counter each time a character of said first block of information has been transferred, and means responsive to a 0 count condition of said counter to enable said transfer apparatus to transfer a second block of information to said output device.

2. The apparatus recited in claim 1 wherein said storage means includes a three-dimensional magnetic core matrix, said magnetic core matrix having a number of storage locations equal to the maximum number of characters in one block of data.

3. The apparatus recited in claim 1 wherein said output device is an on-the-fly printer adapted to successively print a plurality of horizontal printing lines and each of said blocks of data includes the characters to be printed on one of said horizontal printing lines.

4. The apparatus recited in claim 1 wherein said means for transferring said blocks of data from said storage means to said output device includes a comparator, said on-the-fiy printer having means for sequentially placing a plurality of printing hammers each representative of a particular character into printing position, means for connecting the character representative of the enabled printing hammer to a first input to said comparator, means for sequentially connecting each of the characters in said storage means to a second input to said comparator, said comparator producing an output when there is correspondence between the characters at the two inputs to said comparator, and means responsive to an output of said comparator for effecting a printing operation.

5. The combination including printer apparatus and .means for shifting said printer apparatus from line to line,

said printer apparatus comprising a print mechanism including a plurality of type members movable relative to a print line having a plurality of uniformly spaced print positions, hammer means located along said line, operable for striking said members at said printpositions, said type jacent printpositions so as to be alignable only at separated 'rint ositions along said rint line, means for advancing said type members relative to said print line to effect a plurality of successive sub-cycle alignment sequences, first means for presenting data of intelligence to be recorded and in the sequence in which said type members are alignable, second means for presenting data indicative of the type members alignable during said sequences and in time relation with the presentation of said intelligence data, and means operable in response to an identity between said intelligence data and said type ember data for selectively operating said hammer means whereby certain ones of said type members alignable during said sequences are selectively struck, and said shifting means includes a counter having means to add counts to said counter and having means to subtract counts from said counter, means for successively reading each of the characters of the data to be recorded in a particular print line, means responsive to each of the characters so read for adding one count to said counter, and means responsive to the operation of said hammer means for subtracting one count from said counter, and means responsive to a 0 count condition of said counter for shifting said printer apparatus to a subsequent print line.

6. The combination recited in claim 5 wherein said counter includes a plurality of two-state devices connected to count input pulses in a binary manner, said means for adding a count to said counter includes a first input connected to advance the count in said counter in one direction and said means for subtracting a count from said counter includes a second input connected to advance the count in said counter in the opposite direction.

7. Apparatus for transferring blocks of information of variable character length from a storage means to an output device, said apparatus comprising, an output device, means for reading a first block of information, a storage means, first transfer means for transferring said characters of said first block of information from said reading means to said storage means, second transfer means for transferring, character by character, characters in said first block from said storage means to said output device, means responsive to the variability in length of said blocks and associated with said second transfer teams for determining when said first block of information has been transferred thereby and means responsive to said last means to enable said transfer means to transfer a second block of information to said output device.

8. Apparatus for transferring blocks of information of variable character length from a storage device to a cyclically operated output device, said apparatus comprising; a cyclically operated output device, means for read ing a first block of information, a storage means, first transfer means for transferring said characters of said first block of information from said reading means to said storage means, second transfer means for transferring, character by character, characters in said first block from vice, means responsive to the variability in length of said blocks and associated with said second transfer means for determining when said first block of information has been transferred by said second transfer means, and means responsive to said last means to enable said transfer means to transfer a second block of information to said cyclically operated output device to thereby vary the cycle of operation of said cyclically operated output device as a function of the character length of said blocksj 9. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein said cyclically operated output device is a printer. I

10. Apparatus for transferring blocks of information of variable character length from a storage means to a cyclically operated output device, said apparatus comprising; a cyclically operated cutput'device, means for reading said blocks of inf rmation, a storage means, first ransfer means for transferring saidblocks of information from said reading means to s'aidstorage means, sec- 0nd transfer means for transferring, character by charsaid storage means to said cyclically operated output deacter, characters in a block of information from said storage means to said output device, means responsive to the variability in length or" said blocks and associated with said second transfer means for determining when a block of information has been transferred by said second transfer means, and means responsive to said last means for terminating the cycle of operation of said output device upon the transfer of a block of information thereto to enable said transfer means to transfer additional blocks of information to said output device.

11. Apparatus as claimed in claim 10, wherein said 5 output device is a printer.

No references cited. 

1. AN APPARATUS FOR TRANSFERRING BLOCKS OF INFORMATION OF VARIABLE CHARACTER LENGTH FROM A STORAGE MEDIUM TO AN OUTPUT DEVICE, SAID APPARATUS COMPRISING; MEANS FOR SEQUENTIALLY READING A FIRST BLOCK OF INFORMATION TO BE TRANSFERRED CHARACTER BY CHARACTER TO SAID OUTPUT DEVICE, A COUNTER, MEANS FOR ADDING ONE COUNT TO SAID COUNTER EACH TIME A CHARACTER OF SAID FIRST BLOCK OF INFORMATION IS READ, STORAGE MEANS, FIRST MEANS FOR TRANSFERRING SAID CHARACTERS OF SAID FIRST BLOCK OF INFORMATION FROM SAID READING MEANS TO SAID STORAGE MEANS, SECOND MEANS FOR TRANSFERRING SAID CHARACTERS OF SAID FIRST BLOCK OF INFORMA- 